


When Time Moves for Us

by anopendoor



Series: Reylous_AUs [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Implied Breeding, No Pregnancy, Star-crossed, StatuesAU, They're cursed as statues and only can be together once every 25 years, Unprotected Sex, Vaginal Sex, cursed lovers, lovers reunited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:00:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27608672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anopendoor/pseuds/anopendoor
Summary: They called her Eurydice, the mortals who walked through the hall day in and day out, wrongfully educating the swarms of students and tourists who gazed upon them. They called him Orpheus, after the famed demigod and son of Apollo.They didn’t know they were just Ben and Rey.Ben and Rey are cursed as statues only to come to life for one hour every twenty-five years.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Reylous_AUs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018552
Comments: 26
Kudos: 160





	When Time Moves for Us

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a moodboard from a series I'm working on and sharing on twitter! They're called [Reylous_AUs](https://twitter.com/anopendoor3/status/1328817707786133518?s=20) and you can see all of them on my twitter account. 😊
> 
> I love Reylo and all the AU's they inspire - and they inspire me to create moodies...and fics! It would be amazing if they inspired others too 😉

The faraway trills from the bells at Holy Trinity Church faintly echo throughout the Marble Saloon of Wentworth Woodhouse. They ring eleven times, signaling the impending new day and the end of a fateful one, for it’s the seventeenth of November.

On this day, every twenty-five years, for one hour before midnight, two souls are released from their stone prisons to unite as one among the confines of their destinies.

It’s Benjamin, who wakes first with eager seeking eyes and sore limbs.

He clamors off the stone pedestal with unpracticed muscles. He falls to the marble floor with a groan. It doesn’t hinder him, however, and he almost bounces back up in his haste to cross the room. He wants to be there to catch her, in case she loses her balance.

When he comes to his senses, he seeks out her alcove, always out of his eyesight when he stands there frozen, looking towards the sun. He would much rather stare at the light of his life instead. Yet, another cruel twist to his endless punishment.

His eyes dart to her pedestal, but he sees it’s already vacated. His eyes frantically search the room for her in the darkness. The stream of moonlight through the towering glass windows only lights the center of the room. The rest is cast in shadow. He tries to use his voice, but it’s strained and dry from lack of use.

“Ben.” He hears her shaking exhale, and his head whips towards the sound.

Oh, to hear her voice again!

He rushes towards it, to where he thinks he can see the outline of her shadow. When she steps into the moonlight, he doesn’t waste another second.

She’s in his arms in an instant. Her warmth bathes him in an energy that's stronger than life. With her in his arms, he’s a star, a ball of fire falling into her for eternity.

“My love," His lip trembles as he feels the softness of her hair against his cheek. He grips her harder than he should, the soft suppleness of her skin indents beneath his fingers.

She’s real. She’s here, and he’s overcome by the sensation of _touch_.

Her hands grasp at him, moving across his shoulders, feeling his skin. Her arms collect between them and press against his beating heart. She stills so that she can feel the thump against her palms before her hands slide up and cup his cheeks.

He can’t help but smile wide into her hands. The feeling of finally being able to touch her after so long, to be able to see her eyes shining against the reflection of the moon above them. He hasn’t felt a relief so strong since the last time he was able to hold her.

She pulls him into a long-awaited kiss. His arms wrap entirely around her shoulders, encasing her fully within him. If he could only just stay frozen forever with her in his arms…

They called her Eurydice, the mortals who walked through the hall day in and day out, wrongfully educating the swarms of students and tourists who gazed upon them. They called him Orpheus, after the famed demigod and son of Apollo.

They didn’t know they were just Ben and Rey.

Ben can't recall how long they have been cursed. He’s chosen not to keep track. All he cares about is that one day every twenty-five years when he can be with his love. It's Rey who has tried to keep count. Ben would guess it’s been almost a thousand years.

He remembers every moment he’s had with her, even if he cannot account for the time or duration.

“Have you seen it? Humans now take photographs with these small flashing tile-like things.” Rey says excitedly as their lips break apart. Except, Ben will not let her get any farther away from him. The distance between their lips hardly a graze. “And the clothes are all so tiny!”

Ben shakes his head before he captures her lips with his own once more. His long and unruly curls brush against her temples, and she giggles against him.

She pulls back again to say more. “And our new caretaker is very amusing. He can whistle maybe a hundred different songs. Ones I’ve never heard of, of course—”

“Rey, my love,” Ben sighs exasperated. “I’ve waited almost a thousand days to kiss you. I don’t want to wait a moment longer.”

She raises up to her tiptoes and nuzzles her pointed nose against his crooked one. "Then you shall not." she croons, and her head tilts up to press a kiss to his mouth.

He holds her to him and relishes the feeling of her lips smiling against his own. She tastes sweeter than the nectar of any fruit he can remember from their past lives.

“I've overheard some visitors, who wonder why the sculptor who made you gave you such a lopsided nose!” She pecks his lips again before pulling back, and Ben’s face gravitates with her movement, magnetized to her lips. “Some girls also say you’re ‘quite fit’, and I think it’s a compliment.” Her expression turns mischievous, and she bites her lip. “They comment on the laudable size of your ‘dick’. It gives me some entertainment as I wish to tell them: if _only they knew_.”

He feels flush as she talks to him with the modern slang she’s picked up from the droves of tourists that walk through the room every day. He can’t help the small smile that tugs at his lips in endearment. Yes, he wanted to continue to desperately kiss her, but listening to her share her excitements for the world they only get to see within their solid confines, fills him with both grief and happiness.

“They never will.” He says assuredly. “The only one who will ever know me in that way is you.” Ben then attacks her mouth with a new fervor. His enormous hands slide against the tissue-thin material draped across her body, and he scrunches the fabric between his fingers, pulling it up slightly.

Rey hums into his mouth as her hand snakes down his body to where he’s started to grow substantially. He’s already without any clothing, as was how he was when frozen in time for eternity. The air in the hall is always cool in November, but he hardly has the focus to notice it. Not when he barely spent a moment not wrapped in his lover’s arms.

He pulls the gauzy fabric off of her in one quick movement, and when she’s naked against him, he groans fervently.

They collapse down to the marble beneath them. Ben rolls to his back and feels the bite of the cold stone at his back, but he doesn’t care when he feels Rey straddle his waist, the wet feel of her desire a hot stripe down his lower abdomen.

Time is a precious thing, and they only have minutes of it. Rey lifts her hips and sits down on his cock in one quick movement. She mewls at the feel of him stretching her insides.

Ben can only describe the feeling as finally returning home from a lifetimes' worth of distance when he slides into her hot heat. He sighs when he feels her contract around him.

They don’t go slow. They can't, there's no time. Their bodies writhe across the marble floor with hasty and breathless movements. It doesn’t take long for Rey to cry out and come undone above him. Her body shivers and clenches around him as she revels in her pleasure. Ben allows the fleeting emotion to overcome him while filling her womb with his seed. He imagines their life together. He thinks of the babe he’s gladly giving her with each pulse of his cock. He dreams of their child, smiling under the sun and wrapped in the arms of two people who couldn’t love someone more.

Ben gasps as his body jerks beneath her. The telltale wetness trails across his cheek, and his arms hold Rey tightly to his chest as she leans down and nuzzles against him.

He feels a wetness there as well, and he begins to absently stroke her hair. If only he could wipe the despair away. Their fleeting minutes of happiness never last, when all Ben can think about is the next thousand days he has to endure without her.

“I love you,” Rey whispers into his chest as she cries. They lie there, still connected, their torsos rising and falling together. Their bodies intertwine like how Ben imagines their souls are always, even when they stand frozen on opposite ends of the room.

Ben stares up into the dark ceiling. “I’m not letting you go this time.” He says, and he feels her shiver above him. He knows what she will say. He knows she will try to convince him, and she always does. Every time, as the bell chimes twelve times and right before the last stroke of midnight, they go to their respective pedestals, back to their hellish fates.

But Ben can’t take another twenty-five years without her. Not this time.

“We shouldn’t go back.” He says resolutely, angrily. “If I’m going to be stone for eternity, I want it to be with you in my arms.”

Rey shakes her head against his chest. “No,” she whispers. “I would live a hundred years in stone if it meant I still had a chance to touch you, to feel your warmth, to hear your heart for this one hour of bliss.” She presses her ear harder against his chest. “I couldn’t remain frozen, yet aware of you, only to know that I’ll never be able to touch your lips again. Is that no worse than this?”

Ben can’t be sure. He’s thought about it for so long, has considered if the pain he feels day in and day out is one he can withstand any longer. “Maybe it will not be like that. What if we could break the curse?”

“How?” Her voice trembles in fright. She sounds despondent. She sounds like she’s without hope.

Ben shivers beneath her. “I don’t know, but I’m willing to risk it. We have to risk it if we ever want a chance at freedom. No matter the cost. Don’t be afraid, I feel it too. But I can’t be forced to stand across the room from you for another minute. I can’t watch as the sun crosses the marble floor but never reaches you in your far-off alcove. You deserve the sun. You deserve life. We deserve peace.” His voice is passionate and filled with emotion. He’s had so much time to think about life and humanity—two of the things stolen from them.

Rey sniffs against his chest. “But, Palpatine’s curse…”

In anger, Ben sits up, his arms still cradle her to his chest. “Have we not suffered enough—been tortured enough? No more, my Love, no more.” His hands swoop down to clasp hers, and he turns to look into her tear-filled eyes. “I would rather die than go back to how it was.”

Grief flies across Rey’s face, and she leans up to kiss him. Her lips press against his tightly, and her arms twist around his broad shoulders. “Don’t say that.” She gasps. “I couldn’t bear another moment if you were gone.”

Ben shakes his head. “Don’t you see? We’re not living— _this_ isn’t life. This is hell.” His hand comes up to cup her cheek. The length of his palm encompasses her head from the tip of her chin to her crown. He cradles her gently. “Stay with me, right here, and when the hour is up and midnight strikes. We will be sent back to our stone prisons, but this time, my lips will be pressed against your skin, and every day for the next twenty-five years, I will get to gaze upon you. That’s all I want, or else I hope to be punished by death. Then maybe we both will be with each other in the stars.”

He caresses her cheek with his thumb, his arm around her waist keeps her wrapped within his embrace. “Let us just stay like this. Let us be together. Could you live like that? Another quarter of a century away from me? Because I can’t Rey, it’s tearing me apart.” His lip trembles as he whispers to her. Her own hands come up to his face, and she soothes the forlorn lines away.

“I would do anything for you.” She says softly, and her lips slowly curve into a hopeful smile. “If this is the end, I want the last thing I see to be you.”

The first bell tolls faintly in the distance.

Ben’s arm tightens around Rey.

“I love you with every essence of my soul.” Ben lauds. “The light of my life, you will finally be mine.”

Rey shivers against him. “I’m scared.” She whimpers, but Ben soothes her with a kiss.

The sixth bell chimes.

“No matter what happens, I’ll be with you, forever.” He pulls her flush against him in a tight embrace. His lips run along the skin at her shoulder. 

He should have spent more of their time tasting her.

There are only two chimes left, and Ben anticipates them rolling on under the ruling fate of time.

“We’re going to be alright.” He runs his nose along her neck and peppers kisses against her skin. He presses his lips against the edge of her mouth. His eyes remain trained on her face so that if he were to be frozen forever like this, he would see only her.

_“Ben!”_ She gasps, and it’s the last thing he hears before the last bell sounds, and he’s thrust into darkness.

-

Poe Dameron, the new caretaker of Wentworth mansion, whistles happily in the brisk November chill as he saunters into work at six in the morning.

The light of dusk is just about to rise over the horizon and paint the estate in its golden glow. Poe prides himself in his work and on his luck for having such a position to be able to witness this sort of beauty every day.

He walks into the Marble Saloon and stops short. His eyebrow quirks curiously. He doesn’t remember Amilyn saying anything about a new sculpture arriving at Wentworth today—or any day really.

With slow and trepidatious steps, he approaches the massive marble stone in the middle of the room. He’s never seen it before on the property. Who would have been able to carry this in here without him—without _anyone_ —knowing?

He peers at the two lovers locked in a passionate embrace. They’re both nude, but the chiseled smoothness of a flowing garment lays expertly sculpted beneath them.

It looks like a masterpiece.

Poe walks one complete circle around the sculpture, inspecting it with a critical eye. He will have to ask Amilyn later today what this is all about.

He walks off, heading towards the grounds to do his usual sweep of the gardens and acreage, whistling all the while.

It’s a little past noon when he returns to the Marble Saloon. Amilyn usually comes in around eleven, and he walks back into the house, intending to seek her out.

Poe stops short as he walks into the Saloon.

The room is now empty, the lovers nowhere to be seen.

Poe scratches his head in puzzlement. He glances around like he somehow expected the sculpture to have walked off on its own and now be settled somewhere else in the room.

Something does catch his eye as he walks further to the center where the sculpture had stood. It’s a gauzy white slip of fabric, puddled on the floor.

Poe quirks another curious brow as he bends down to pick it up. Had one of the staff dropped this? Had anyone else seen the statue?

Maybe he needs to lay off the gin and tonics whenever he meets with Finn and Rose at the pub on Thursdays.

He clutches the silken fabric in one hand as he canters out of the room and continues on with his daily tasks.

Perhaps Chewie is pulling one of his pranks again. Poe will be sure to get him back for it.

-

It’s in the paper the next day. Rose is animatedly talking about the biggest news to hit Rotherham in _years_.

A naked couple was found in the woods yesterday afternoon, three kilometers away from Wentworth. The article didn’t extrapolate on what they were doing there or why they were nude.

Poe sips his gin and tonic and quirks his lips at his friend. What an odd few days in Rotherham indeed.


End file.
